German buse Commissioner calls for apologies from Cardinal

The Commissioner of the Federal Government for Questions of Sexual Child Abuse, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, has accused the former Regensburg bishop and present Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of serious failures in dealing with the abuse scandal at the Regensburg Domspatzen.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller in his office in Rome.

At the beginning of July, Pope Francis sacked Müller as head of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith.

"Under the then Bishop Miller, a comprehensive, pro-active reworking with the involvement of those concerned was unfortunately missed," the online edition of the "Passauer Neuen Presse" quoted the Commissioner on Wednesday.

"Müller always spoke of individual cases, but did not investigate the structural failures," criticized Rörig. "It would be desirable for those concerned that he would at least now apologize for the protracted re-appraisal."

The lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who has been employed by the boys’ choir to deal with the misuse scandal, presented his final report on Tuesday. According to this, over the decades a total of 547 children were victims of physical and sexual violence.

Rörig said in the "Passauer Neue Presse" that it was particularly important that all parties involved in the process were included. "There can be no final line drawn in Regensburg yet." But no one should lean back and think that this was only a matter for the Catholic Church, added the Abuse Commissioner. "The number of cases of abuse has been high for years," said Rörig. "Sexual violence against children continues to take place everywhere, in the family, in institutions, by other young people and children, and increasingly by the digital media."

At the same time, Rörig deplored the lack of willingness of many states to pay into the aid fund for abuse victims. "If all of the 9,000 applications of victims are now processed, the fund will be exhausted," he said. Only three out of 16 federal states have so far paid into the fund. "That's a scandal."

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